Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		4.0

Witchfinder General Blu-ray Movie Review

Hide and sick.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 20, 2013

Note: This film is currently available as part of The Vincent Price Collection.

Shout! Factory’s Scream Factory imprint is giving horror fans a little early Halloween present this year, bringing six classic Vincent Price – American International films to high definition for the first time. Though horror tends to be a genre that, to paraphrase one Rodney Dangerfield, “gets no respect”, and indeed probably all of these films were thought of as B- movie drive in fodder back in the day, most if not all of them hold up surprisingly well today, with several of them offering a quasi- hallucinatory quality which Roger Corman, the supposedly low rent auteur who is responsible for the majority of the offerings in this set, states was a deliberate choice (not one necessitated by relatively paltry budgets) in an attempt to viscerally recreate the inner life of the (perhaps troubled) mind. Though Price had made at least a couple of forays into horror in the fifties with such fare as House of Wax 3D and The Fly , it was really the American International pictures that established Price’s “second act” in the film business, offering him more or less steady employment when many of his contemporaries had either resigned themselves to the ostensibly less glamorous world of television or who had outright retired from show business.

While Witchfinder General doesn’t really seem to fit into the perceived “Corman-Poe” filmography that the new Vincent Price Collection exploits, there’s actually at least a bit of a through line from the first American International Poe outing, The Fall of the House of Usher, and this striking 1968 film. In both outings, a young would-be couple find themselves at the mercy of an imperious character portrayed by Price, and though Witchfinder General is much more explicit than The Fall of the House of Usher is in this regard, there’s a certain sexual subtext going on between Price’s character and the young female in both films. Witchfinder General had a rather ignominious debut, encountering significant public outrage in England when it premiered, and being largely ignored by the critical elite when it hopped across the pond in a potentially even more controversial (and unexpurgated) version. American International, as seemed to be its wont, tried to shoehorn the Poe connection onto this completely unrelated film, saddling it with the patently ridiculous (if culled from Poe) title The Conqueror Worm and adding bookending elements featuring Price reading sections of that Poe poem, even though they had virtually nothing to do with the actual plot.

Witchfinder General is ostensibly a historical piece, though it’s only somewhat loosely based in fact. Price portrays a martinet witch hunter named Hopkins, who travels the British countryside with his even more sadistic underling, the aptly named Stearne (Robert Russell), attempting to ferret out any untoward demonic activity, and resorting to torture to “coax” confessions if no such activity presents itself willingly. Meanwhile, a young officer named Marshall (Ian Ogilvy) is able to get a leave from the battles of the English Civil War in order to visit his true love Sara (Hilary Dwyer), who is the niece of a local priest. (An understanding of the Cromwell uprising probably is necessary to fully appreciate some of the subtext of what’s going on in the film.)

This film, even more so than The Masque of the Red Death, finds Price in a serious and surprisingly nuanced performance style, miles away from the campier and more hyperbolic techniques he displayed in several of the actual Poe outings. Price and co- writer and director Michael Reeves (who died from a drug overdose just shortly after the film’s release) were reportedly at each other’s throats during the filming. Reeves made no secret of the fact that he felt as if Price had been foisted off on him by American International, and Price, who wasn’t used to being disrespected, especially by a brash twenty- something, was far from cooperative on set. Rather surprisingly, then, Witchfinder General stands as one of Price’s most fascinating and restrained performances. Hopkins veers between leering decrepitude and actual an almost moral seeming righteousness, something that Reeves obviously intentionally went for in order to keep the audience unsure of exactly what was going to happen next.

Witchfinder General is a bittersweet experience in a way, for there’s little doubt that Michael Reeves was already a major talent, as evidenced by the very first shot of the film, which captures a “cross” of sunlight bursting through some tree branches, a perfect symbol for the religious subtext that permeates the film. But even more importantly, Reeves, though his methods may not have been very graceful or tactful, elicited a brilliantly understated performance from Price, certainly one of the most compellingly watchable of the actor’s long career. The film is ultimately kind of nihilistic, though, with an ending that leaves little hope for anything other than some kind of divine saving grace to set things right.

Witchfinder General Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Witchfinder General is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Scream Factory, an imprint of Shout! Factory, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. While things generally look quite good here, my sense is that some of the variances in image quality must be traceable back to the fact that this may have been cobbled together from different versions of the film. Reeves tends to shoot a lot of the sylvan outdoor material with a glistening soft focus ambience, but even some of the "normal" footage looks fairly soft here, and in fact there are some fairly radical differences that accrue between shots, again perhaps traceable to different source elements. One quite noticeable one occurs at around 1:03:00 when an indoor scene with Price is noticeably softer and grainier than what has just come before (this is but one example). While overall the color scheme is accurate looking and generally well saturated, there are minute fluctuations and density variances creating some quasi- flicker which eagle eyed viewers will notice. Though this isn't a transfer issue per se, some of the day for night sequences offer low contrast that bathe the image in a pretty muddy appearance. All of this said, taken as a whole, Witchfinder General looks pretty amazing on Blu-ray, especially considering the slicing and dicing it underwent for various markets. Therefore, if I had the ability to, I might knock this up to around a 3.75, even though there are a few issues to be aware of. Fans of the film should be very well pleased with this transfer, despite some occasional hiccups.

My colleague Dr. Svet Atanasov reviewed the British Blu-ray release of this film, and some may want to do a little "comparison shopping" of screenshots.

Witchfinder General Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Witchfinder General features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono mix presented via DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. The film is notable for its rather evocative Paul Ferris score, one which has a certain folksong like quality whose main theme presages Georges Delerue's score for Anne of the Thousand Days which came out a couple of years after this film. Dialogue is cleanly presented, and the track has no damage issues to report. Once again, fidelity is excellent and dynamic range is bolstered by lots (and lots) of screaming.

Witchfinder General Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Witchfinder General: Horror Classic (1080i; 25:02) is an interesting featurette with several knowledgeable talking heads discussing the production.


• Play Movie with Introduction/Outroduction by Vincent Price (1080i; 2:55) and (1080i; 2:03) is culled from Iowa Public Broadcasting's Vincent Price's Gothic Horrors broadcasts.


• Interview with Vincent Price (1080i; 1:02:11) is a vintage piece with David Del Valle that was taped when The Whales of August was released.


• Interview with Victoria Price (1080i; 47:17) is a fantastic piece with Price's daughter.


• Alternate Opening and Closing Credits for The Conqueror Worm (1080p; 5:52)


• Trailer (1080p; 2:06)


• Additional Vincent Price Trailers (1080p; 18:00) is a great compilation of a bunch of Price titles, including everything from House of Wax 3D to The Fly. (Trailers are almost always in the public domain since studios rarely copyrighted them, which is why trailers from other studios can be included here.)


• Still Gallery (1080p; 6:57)


• Commentary with Philip Waddilove and Ian Ogilvy. Steve Haberman, who provided the commentary for The Masque of the Red Death hosts Ogilvy, who portrayed Marshall in the film, and Waddilove, who jokes about starting as location manager, quickly becoming an associate producer, and then being surprised to see himself elevated to the role of Producer when he first saw the credits at the initial screening of the film. This is highly enjoyable, if more on the anecdotal than informative side. Waddilove's great story about attending to Price after a bit of a contretemps with Reeves and a painful fall off of a horse is quite funny.

Witchfinder General Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Witchfinder General is tonally quite different than most of the other films in this set, but in some ways it's actually the most disturbing. While the history here may or may not be completely accurate, there's an overriding feeling of claustrophobia and menace emanating from the film, and Price is simply unforgettable in a very unusual role. This Blu-ray offers generally excellent video (with an understanding of the film's history and issues with the various versions) and audio and comes with some great supplements. Highly recommended.